Kerstina Jonsson Nilsson

Biography

Kerstina Jonsson Nilsson was born on June 18, 1814 in Lyngby, Skåne, Sweden. She was the seventh of ten children. At the age of twenty-one, she married Paul Martensson Åkerberg in Esarp, Malmöhus, Sweden. They settled in the area and had nine children, five daughters and four sons. Two of Kerstina's sons died when they were young.
At some point before 1863, Kerstina and her family learned about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though her eldest daughter Ingrid was opposed to the Church, the rest of the family became members. In 1863, Kerstina and her husband took their four youngest children and immigrated to Utah. They sailed on the John J. Boyd from Liverpool to New York, arriving in the States on May 29, 1863. Then they crossed the plains with the John Riggs Murdock company, arriving in Salt Lake in September.
Once in Utah, Kerstina lived in Moroni and Grantsville. Her husband Paul worked as a carpenter and mason in Moroni. He had a hard time adjusting to life in America and never felt truly at home. After he died in 1870, Kerstina moved to Grantsville to be nearer to her children. Despite her husband's difficulties, she adjusted well to life in America, making friends wherever she went. Kerstina lived in Grantsville for the rest of her life, dying there on October 25, 1894 at the age of eighty. She was buried in the Grantsville City Cemetery.